The misery of the USC basketball season for head coach Andy Enfield is getting deeper and deeper.
New Year’s Day is on Monday. There will be nothing to celebrate for Enfield and USC, who have split their first 12 games despite having a No. 1-ranked recruit at the point guard position, the item Enfield desperately needed to take USC to the next level.
The Trojans are 6-6 after losing on Thursday night at Oregon, 82-74, in a game which was never especially close. USC fell behind by 20 points, made a spirited rally to get within four with 39 seconds left, but never really had a half-decent chance of winning or even forcing the game into overtime. Oregon always had the Trojans at arm’s length.
The USC starting backcourt of Isaiah Collier, Boogie Ellis, and Kobe Johnson — which entered the season as one of the most highly-touted groups in the country — went 11 of 35 from the field, 4 of 16 on 3-pointers, and 3 of 7 at the free throw line. USC was supposed to have an elite offense this season, but nothing is easy for this group, an indictment of Andy Enfield’s coaching.
Collier looks nothing like a top-ranked recruit. More to the point, Oregon had two freshmen in this game — Kwame Evans and Jackson Shelstad — who both scored over 20 points and looked really good.
USC is piling up the losses to the extent that if the Trojans don’t get on an eight-game winning streak soon, they will enter February with nothing to play for in terms of the NCAA Tournament. Their only hope would be to win the Pac-12 Tournament and gain an automatic bid.
No one expected this, but this is the reality for USC basketball.
Visit our friends at Fighting Irish Wire, Buffaloes Wire, and Ducks Wire.